Longtime Detroit Red Wings announcer Budd Lynch dies at 95

Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland congratulates Budd Lynch for his 60 years with the team by awarding him a gift before the NHL game against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on November 5, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

WYANDOTTE — Legendary Detroit Red Wings public announcer Budd Lynch died Monday at the age of 95.

Lynch was an institution within the Red Wings organization, having held the position of public address announcer at Joe Louis Arena from 1985 to 2012. He began his career in 1949 as the team’s play-by-play announcer.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985 as a media honoree and winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.

Born Aug. 7, 1917, as Frank Joseph James Lynch in Windsor, he grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, but has made Wyandotte his home for as long as most people can remember.

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Mayor Joseph Peterson considered Lynch a friend.

“Your voice will be missed during the Red Wings games, your smiling face as you walk around Wyandotte,” Peterson posted on his Facebook page. “(Two years) ago you were given the key to the city, which you so deserved. Now, my friend, I say thank you for all you have done for the game of hockey, the youth, the fundraiser at your golf outing. Need I say more? I know Thelma is with you right now and just saying ‘We have another angel with us now.’ Bud, thank you for the memories.”

Peterson was referring to Lynch’s late wife, Thelma. It was through her that Peterson said he first got to know Lynch. She worked at Wyandotte Municipal Services.

The mayor said he’s not exactly sure how long Lynch resided in Wyandotte, but it goes back to the days before Peterson joined the Police Department, which he has now been retired from for several years.

Peterson said he had just returned home after serving in the Vietnam War and had taken a part-time job at the Mobil gas station at the corner of Ford Avenue (North Line Road) and Biddle Avenue. Lynch was a friend of owner Walt Broughton and was a regular customer. He recalls his first words to Peterson were, “Fill ’er up and bill me.” Peterson said Lynch and Broughton used to discuss golf, which prompted Peterson to ask Lynch if he was a golfer.

“He said to me, ‘Young man, there’s nothing you do that I can’t do,’” Peterson recalled.

Although Lynch didn’t come out and say it, his response probably was in reference to the fact that he had lost an arm while serving in World War II. A rocket struck him in the right shoulder in 1944. He later lost his arm in surgery, but friends say he never considered himself handicapped. In fact, he often referred to himself as the “one-armed bandit.”

Two years ago, Peterson and Councilman Daniel Galeski, who, like Peterson, is a retired Wyandotte police officer and is involved in hockey, decided to show the city’s appreciation to Lynch for all he had done.

“He had been slowing down as the voice of the Red Wings,” Peterson said. “We were talking about how much he has done for hockey and for the city and how great it would be to give him a key to the city. After all, he has always had the key to our hearts.”

Lynch had a wonderful sense of humor, Peterson recalled, as one of the highlights of the banquet included retired Red Wings player Shawn Burr making jokes about Peterson’s size. Burr asked Peterson what happened to the previous mayor, that it appeared Peterson had swallowed him. Peterson came back with his own zinger.

“I told Shawn Burr that if he could have shot the puck in the net as good as he could run his mouth, he would have been in the Hall of Fame,” Peterson said. “Budd Lynch never forgot that. He mentioned it to me several times, saying that Shawn was the clown of the locker room so he didn’t know how I outwitted him.”

Peterson said anyone who has lived in Wyandotte for any period of time most likely will have some recollections of Lynch, as he was often out and about. He lived at a house on Van Alstyne, right off the Detroit River. He recalls that Lynch always drove Ford vehicles, and it wouldn’t be Budd if he didn’t have a cigar in his mouth.

“He always had time to say ‘hello’ and to talk about the Red Wings,” Peterson said. “He was just an ordinary guy in an ordinary city.”

Funeral arrangements are being handled by R.J. Nixon Funeral Home, 2544 Biddle Ave. Visitation hours had not been scheduled as of press time.